The End Of An Era: Craigslist Officially Does Away With "Personals" Section
Source – You can still find furniture or a roommate on Craigslist. But ads seeking romance or sexual connections are no longer going to be available, after Craigslist took down the “personals” section Friday for its U.S. site.
It was approved by a landslide in the Senate earlier this week, as NPR’s Alina Selyukh has reported, but has been met with criticism by free speech advocates and sex workers.
As Craigslist wrote, the law seeks “to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.”
“Any tool or service can be misused,” Craigslist said. “We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day.”
The site added: “To the millions of spouses, partners and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”
The site’s popular “missed connections” section remains in place in the U.S. The personals section is still accessible outside the U.S. — users must confirm that they are 18 and understand they may see adult content.
It’s the end of an era, folks. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, though, with the amount of dating apps available it was only a matter of time before the “craigslist personal section” became obsolete. Will I miss it? Sure. Me and Craigslist go way back. I remember the first time I logged on. I was nineteen and had just seen the Lifetime special movie on the Craigslist Killer. I thought, “Wait people get LAID off this site? And the ONLY risk is murder?” Count me in. Unfortunately, the guys I found weren’t the Sean Cody-esque models I was hoping for. They were typically older, creepy dudes who wanted to see my feet…so I took a bunch of photos and sent them my pay pal information. Kidding. I only accept cash.
According to the government, the reason why the personal section is being shut down is because it promotes sex trafficking. Which may be true. But I still think they should give it a chance to clean up its act. A lot of legitimate business people use Craigslist to make money. Like the lactating stripper with a grizzly c-scar that I hired for my friend’s bachelor party in Maine. Or the guy who tried to sell a ghost to Big Cat. Or the lady who sells positive pregnancy tests to mentally ill women trying to trick their significant others. Not only that, it’s provided some great blogging material over the years:
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The good news is missed connections is still available. So if you lock eyes with someone on the train or weren’t quite sure who was in your mouth in the Equinox steam room you can always post there. Chances are you won’t get a reply but it’s worth a shot. In the words of craigslist, “To the millions of spouses, partners and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”